Players from the Notre Dame Fighting Irish walk to the field through the student section for warm-ups before a game against the Purdue Boilermakers at Notre Dame Stadium on September 4, 2010 in South Bend, Indiana. Notre Dame defeated Purdue 23-12. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
Will the Notre Dame football team win more than nine games this year? HELL YES.
For those more cynical than me, the Golden Nugget Las Vegas will pay $100 for each $125 you bet taking the under.
SB Nation’s Bill Connelly recently crunched the numbers and said Notre Dame had a 59 percent or better chance of winning every game next year – except one. (The pre-season hype train is once again in overdrive for USC.)
Connolly wrote:
With only one projected top-15 opponent on the schedule, thanks to projected regression for Stanford and Michigan State, the Irish could follow last year’s “only lose to top-10 teams” recipe into the Playoff.
Still, the home-road splits and a conservative No. 11 projection suggest this will be another season of heartburn and close games. Five Notre Dame contests are projected to finish with a one-possession margin.
There isn’t a sure loss on the schedule. In fact, there’s only one game in which Notre Dame has a worse than 59 percent chance of winning. But operating in close games will be critical. That means finding go-to receivers for the quarterback in times of need, continued quality from Yoon, and a defense that improves up front despite turnover and holds steady in the back despite freshmen on the two-deep.
Sporting News said nine wins is probably right for the Irish. But if they were to lean, it’d be toward the over.
Notre Dame graduate, class of '02 (the Davie years!). A former newspaper and TV reporter, andrewwinn is now professionally involved in something far less fun to discuss than college football. A dad, a husband and a wannabe data nerd.
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